REVIEW: THE CALENDAR GIRLS (Orchard Theatre) ★★★★
Back in 2017, Gary Barlow and Tim Firth unveiled their new musical ‘The Girls‘ in London’s West End. The show ran for six months at the Phoenix Theatre and despite positive reviews, didn’t quite make the impact it should have. Now, a revised version of the show (titled The Calendar Girls) is touring the UK […]
REVIEW: WAITRESS (Adelphi Theatre) ★★★★
The Adelphi Theatre has closed its shoe making factory and opened-up its American Pie Diner, as the Broadway hit musical Waitress has come to London. But for how long? It was a sad site to see that the box office was still selling tickets 15 mins before their official opening performance. Dianne Paulus, the director, has […]
REVIEW: From Afar (Travelling Through… Bookshop) ★★★★
An amusing and touching portrait of a life spent writing letters, From Afar is set in the quaint and intimate Travelling Through… Bookshop as part of the VAULT Festival 2019. Starring Catherine Millsom with direction and dramaturgy by Ashleigh Packham, David Coverdale’s new play is very humorous whilst focusing on grief and death as a […]
REVIEW: EQUUS (Theatre Royal Stratford East) ★★★★
Peter Shaffer’s 1973 psychological classic is revived by director Ned Bennett in a stripped back and energetic version of Equus, that focuses on the conflict between faith and sex. Gone are the design gimmicks and horse props from previous productions, with the focal point moved firmly onto the narrative and in particular the two lead […]
REVIEW: MATHILDA AND THE ORANGE BALLOON (ArlingtonArtsCentre) ★★★★
Randall de Sève’s book Mathilda and the Orange Ballon has been developed by The DH Ensemble in collaboration with US artist Jess Kaufman into a delightful children’s show for three to eight year olds and their families and is designed to be both interactive and deaf accessible. The result is a charming forty five minutes that […]
REVIEW: A Hundred Words for Snow (Trafalgar Studios) ★★★★★
A Hundred Words For Snow is a coming-of-age story about Aurora – Rory for short (Gemma Barnett), whose Geography teacher father was killed in a hit and run, leaving Rory and her mum confused, angry and thinking about everything that could’ve been. Rory stumbles across her dad’s journal, and finds that he’d been planning a […]
REVIEW: ABIGAIL’S PARTY (Royal & Derngate) ★★★
As Brits, we love awkwardness. That is, we hate it. But in a comic situation, we love it. The Office, Extras, any play by David Hare… something about it makes us inwardly cringe when we watch it. And yet this type of comedy is extremely popular. Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh is often credited as […]
REVIEW: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Curve) ★★★★
The Girl on the Train visits Curve in Leicester this week, and it’s a thrilling rollercoaster from start to finish. I’ll hold my hand up and admit that I ventured into this performance totally blind, as I must be one of the only people on the planet to have never read the book or watched […]
REVIEW: The Rocky Horror Show (New Victoria Theatre) ★★★★
The Rocky Horror Show is a cult classic, and probably has one of the most dedicated fanbases of any show or film and has been wowing sell-out audiences for more than forty Years around the globe. Now it is the turn of Woking’s New Victoria Theatre to host this show as its rushes along full […]
REVIEW: BAD GIRLS THE MUSICAL (Upstairs at the Gatehouse) ★★
BAD GIRLS the Musical, written by Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus (writers of the original ITV prison drama) premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2006 before a three month run at the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End in 2007. Rachel Hicks, a young new mother, is admitted to G-wing at HMP Larkhall on […]